Our friends are getting married this Friday and my husband & I are both in it.

These friends gave us a pretty decent sized wedding gift, which we felt really awkward about accepting but we did. They are moving shortly after the wedding, so instead of having a registry they have specifically asked for money. We don't have any problem with that and will happily give them a check. However, due to circumstances out of our control we only have one job right now and a minimal amount of savings (most will be depleted after this trip). They have mentioned on more than one occasion that they are expecting to get back all of the gifts they've given to their friends over the years for weddings. So of couse they are expecting to get back the same amount they gave us. We love them, but we cannot afford that right now. We saved for their wedding and all of the travel and events associated with it, but I am really stressing out over this gift.

We can give them half and explain to them that we can give them the other half closer to their moving date, but then I felt like it's supposed to be a gift. I feel like we owe them now, but we shouldn't feel like we owe them. This "gift" is closer to 4 digits than 3 and most of that gift was used to pay for travel expenses for the multiple trips we had to make there after we went down to one job. I'm just really at a loss.

We want to gift them the same amount, but we financially can't this month. Should we give them half now and half later or give them what we can afford because it's a gift, not a debt?